White House defends Iraq war decision

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 27, 2004

White House defends Iraq war decision

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The Bush administration on Monday defended the US-led war in Iraq as a "right decision" despite an assertion by the former top US weapons inspector in Iraq that the country probably never had weapons of mass destruction (WMD

"Saddam Hussein was a dangerous and gathering threat and the president made the right decision to remove him from power. The world is safer because of the actions we took," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters while traveling with US President George W. Bush in Little Rock, Arkansas.

But the spokesman stopped short of repeating past Bush administration statements that forbidden weapons would be found inIraq.

McClellan said the Iraq Survey Group, a team of experts lookingfor WMD, should continue the search despite comments from its former leader, David Kay, that no stockpiles probably exists.

"We need to compare the intelligence before the war with what the Iraq Survey Group learns on the ground," said McClellan. "Their mission is ongoing and their work is ongoing."

Kay, who stepped down as the CIA special adviser leading the Iraq Survey Group last week, said on Sunday that his group found no evidence Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction beforethe US-led invasion in March.

Speaking on the National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition," Kay said that US intelligence services owe President Bush an explanation for having concluded that Iraq had such weapons.

"My summary view, based on what I've seen, is we're very unlikely to find large stockpiles of weapons," he said. "I don't think they exist."

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